Influence of Social Media Language on Students’ Grammar and Writing in Kogi State College of Education Technical Mopa and Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara Kogi State (Published)
This study examines the influence of social media language on students’ grammar and writing skills at the College of Education Technical, Mopa and Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara Kogi State. With the growing usage of social platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter/X, and Instagram, informal language patterns, abbreviations, emojis, and non-standard spellings have increasingly filtered into academic writing. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study collected data from 200 students and 10 lecturers via questionnaires, writing tasks, and interviews. The findings reveal that social media language significantly affects students’ ability to write grammatically correct and coherent essays. While some digital literacy skills were found to enhance creative expression, the majority of students frequently transferred informal digital expressions into their formal academic writing. The study recommends targeted academic writing programmes and awareness campaigns to promote register sensitivity and metalinguistic awareness among students.
Keywords: Academic Writing, Grammar, Higher Education, Nigeria, Social media, digital influence, student language
Effects of Social Media on the Academic Achievement of Students: A Case Study of the Students of the Department of Arts Education, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria (Published)
Information and communication technology (ICT) has experienced a huge transformation over the past decade. This has culminated into the world becoming a global village. Today most people use the social media for a variety of purposes. With the number of social media users growing worldwide, it is important to ascertain its effects on students’ academic performance. This paper, anchored on the time displacement theory, investigated the effects of the social media on the achievement of students of the Department of Arts Education, Kogi State University, Anyigba. The sample consist 400 students across the 4 levels. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled Social Media and Academic Achievement Questionnaire (SMAAQ) developed by the researchers. The data was analyzed using simple percentage. The result of the study reveals that majority of the students use social media, spending a lot of time which displaces their study time. Based on this finding, the paper recommends that tertiary institutions should devise strategies where students could utilize social media for academic use instead of other uses which have negative effects on their studies.
Keywords: Academic Achievement, Displacement theory, Social media, Students